Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-04-29
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
Tho National Drill AID Il. EneAmPneI

Grounds-SprieS ~ ttte tapH"
WASHINGTON, April - The national
drill, which takes place here next month,
promises to be great success. Mr.. De
Leon, the manager, tells me that thirty
one States and two Territories will be rep
resented by regiments. by battalions and
single companies Of cavalry, artillery, in-
family and zouayes, ard among these will
h some of the best organizations in the
country. He estimates that the expenses
of the drill will be more than S1OO,OOO
and saws that the money prizes are de-
posted in the Bank of the Republic. he
| expects that there will be hundreds OF
| thousands of strangers in Washington TO
see it, and says that the railroad rates,
cent and a half a mile for the round trip,
are the cheapest ever known.
~
Twenty Governors Of States will he
present here at the time OF the drill with
their full stafls, and May % has been set
Governors day. Every night during the
week there will be extensive parades, and
on Monday, May 80, the entire militia
army which will be gathered here Will
parade for Decoration day, and there viii
| be appropriate ceremonies at Arlington
cemetery. The encampment, as you know,
| is TO be on the monument grounds, These
grounds lie along the Potomac, in the very
heart of Washington. They are bounded
by public building and they form a great
park, on the edge OF which begin the
grounds of the Smithsonian Institution and
of the agricultural department.. Just
across the river from them, in plain sight,
is the old Arlington House which Martha
Gusts used to own and which Gen. Lee
occupied at the time the war began.
Standing at the rivers edge and looking to
the right may be seen the State, War and
Navy Departments, the biggest granite
building in the world. Next TO it is the
White House, and the President can wheel
around in his chair and look out OF Its
back windows at the grand encampment
below. The Treasury Department Is also
| in plain view, and in an opposite direction
the great Capitol building with its statue
of liberty, may be plainly seen. The pan
Drama of the Battle of Bull Run is within |
a stones throw of this encampment, and |
Just back of it is the Bureau Of Engraving
and Printing, where all the greenbaeks
used by the nation are made. The Smith
sonian grounds are filed with trees and
shady walks. There are many coy benches
under these, and by the time the encamp- |
ment meets everything will be in full
bloom.
~
The troops will drill in the White lot
lust below the Presidents mansion. This
| is TO be at once fenced in, and grand |
stands which will accommodate $4,000 |
people are to be erected. Underneath |
these stands there will be restaurants, ga
looms, reading and refreshment rooms. |
Each night during the encampment there
will be concerts by noted bands from va
rious sections OF the country, and
there will be realistic pyrOrama, or fire.
work drama of the battle between the Mer- |
riamc and the Monitor in Hampton roads. |
The manager of this national drill, Mr.. |
T. G. De Leon, was at one time the man
aging editor of the Mobile Register. he
is slender, dark compleXioned man, per- |
haps 10 years of age; aud he is q South |
Carolinian by BIRTH He was a clerk in
the War Department when JEFF Davis was |
its Secretary, and after the war was over |
was employed on the literary staff of sew
eral OF the New York journals. He has
written successful plays, and was the Sec |
rotary of the Interstate drill and encamp- |
ment ut Mobile two years ago. He is a |
very busy fellow and is full of life ard en-
ergy.
Spring is here at the Capital in all her
beauty. The grass is green in the parks,
and the buds of the hundred and more
thousands of Washington shade trees are
bursting into leaves. The hyacinths and
crOcuses have been planted by the govern
ment gardeners in all the circles, aud the |
flower beds of the White House and the
Treasury are full of beauty. | visited |
Fortress Monroe last week, but / find that |
vegetation is much further advanced here |
than there. The sun is warmer, the grass |
is greener and the peach trees are fuller of
pink blossoms. We have thrown aside
our OvercOats here, it is be hoped,
for the summer, and all over Wash |
ington the spring building has
commenced. l walked out in the |
country to the Massachusetts, avenue
extension yesterday, and found q
small army of men and carts at work cut
ting down the hills and filling up the val
| leys. | went on around Georgetown to |
| the Presidents home, and the grass is |
green on the fields of Oak View. There |
are beds OF flowers about the house, and |
the President has transformed it from q |
rough looking farm into one OF the most |
beautiful of country seats. passed many |
stylish carriages during my walk, and |
noted that the supercilliOuS, straight back |
ed, brass buttOned cOachmep were the ser |
wants of some of the most noted families of
capital. The TennallytOwu road has be-
come the fashionable drive of Washington,
and it will be to the capital what the Bots
de BoulOgne is TO Paris and Rotten row to
| London.
~
Washington is fast changing its charac
ter. Before and mp to the time of the war
it was Southern city. 1t has now he
come emphatically Northern city. The
cities of the South are usually punched to-
gether They have not extensive suburbs,
and their buildings tend more or less to
the close, block like form of architecture.
We find few large yards, and few streets
such as Euclid avenue of Cleveland or
Woodward avenue of Detroit. The North
ern house, as a rule, has a large ground
around it, and the Northern man seems to
like more lawn and trees than he can get
in the center of the city. After the war
Northern men began to buy property in
Washington. They have bought more of
late years, and this new element is now
making itself felt. 1t is from it that the
suburban movement toward the purchas
ing of property on the hills comes, and the
probability now is that the finest part of
our Capital City will be on the hills which
surround the basin in which the city now
| lies. FRANK G. CARPENTER.